


The Marks Upon Your Skin

by dontletyourheartdistractyou



Series: Malia Tate Rare Pair Week 2015 [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, M/M, Malia Tate Rare Pair Week, Minor Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Minor Erica Reyes/Stiles Stilinski, Minor Scott McCall/Stiles Stilinski, Minor Stiles Stilinski/Kira Yukimura, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Stiles Stilinski & Malia Tate Friendship, and it turns white on the day you meet them, basically you have your soulmates name on your body somewhere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-12
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 10:03:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4783274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontletyourheartdistractyou/pseuds/dontletyourheartdistractyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Malia always wondered about the marks on her skin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Marks Upon Your Skin

**Author's Note:**

> This was written entirely today and I'm very proud of it. Allison/Lydia/Malia has been my femslash ot3 for quite sometime and I'm ecstatic that I finally got to write something for it.
> 
> The Stiles and Malia friendship is something I always wanted instead of the romance we got because I felt those two would have worked wayyyy better as friends so I tried my best to portray what I feel is a much better relationship for the two. 
> 
> The canon divergence is that there is no nogitsune so basically none of s3b's main plot happens, and that Allison was attacked by the Darach and was left in a coma.
> 
> Prompt was 'favourite polyamorous relationship'.

Malia always wondered about the marks on her skin.

The media always rants about soulmates, about finding one's true love, but they never mention having more than one name tattooed on your body and her family doesn't either, so she's not sure if she's strange or it's common for this, to find two names scrawled across your hip and your wrist, but she suspects it's the former, even as a child.

That's not the only thing she thinks about. She likes the trace the words, one in an almost formal script, the other slightly more messy, and imagine what these two - these girls, her mother tells her - must be like. She wants them to be kind, strong, fierce, beautiful - like the people the romance novels she steals from her parent's library tend to ramble on about - not cold or awkward, the bad kind of awkward, or uncaring - like her father.

Then the car crashes and all those thoughts die.

It's not like they don't pass sometimes, but seeing as she's a coyote, soulmates have little importance. Malia has a feeling, a dark feeling deep in her heart which likes to never leave her head, that she's always going to be like this, but she's gotten used to the forest now, the snow that seems to constantly fall and the wildlife around her - the birds, the rabbits, the foxes. So, why does the marks that probably still stain her skin matter anymore? 

She's never going to meet them. 

Only she's wrong about that.

-

She meets the first one in the sheriff's office.

Malia really didn't like being a human once again; far too used to the towering trees and the frost crunching beneath her feet, big buildings and crowds of people weren't really her thing. She had realised that solitude was more to her liking, instead of the mess of people she had seen while driving here.

The mole-dotted boy next to her is silent, as if he knows that she hates the sounds around her - he'd even pretended to zip his lips shut and winked at her - and he's looking at her with barely disguised concern, but she thinks she enjoys this more than the fawning the boy with the crooked jaw was doing before the brunette practically shoved him out of the room, noticing her discomfort.

It's then, in the quiet, that she sees something strange. After lifting a hand up to brush away the strands covering her eyes - just blowing them away wasn't helping at all, another irritating thing about being back to 'normal' - the white on her wrist catches her eye. Frozen in shock, she feels time stop for a second, as the words on her wrist are no longer black. And that could only mean one thing.

"You okay?" the boy with big eyes asks, stepping over from his place lent against a desk, worry clear in the tone of his voice before he sees it too and stops. A little gasp leaves his lips, mouth open wide, and Malia stares back, words barely forming.

"I-I..." she trails off, barely able to think of what to say, but the boy next to her suddenly gains back his composure and grins, eyes shining bright.

"Don't worry," he says happily, joy evident, and Malia has no idea why this gangly boy is so cheerful about her finding her soulmate - or one of them, she hadn't thought of checking her hip yet, but it's cloaked in the clothes she borrowed - because she sure as hell isn't. What will she do? How can she tell her soulmate who she is? Will she accept her for who she is? The panic's building, before the boy hesitantly places a hand on her shoulder, his grip loose but comforting, and the tension in her shoulder's resides slightly.

"Meeting your soulmate, or soulmates, isn't that bad," he continues, smiling at the shock in her wild eyes. "I met my first when I was I was five. I didn't know it then, but I figured it out after a while." 

"First?" Malia chokes out, seeing the boy's pretty face light up when talking about his soulmates.

He nods, holding down a grin at the curiosity she's showcasing, "You know the guy with the crooked jaw who wouldn't stop worrying about you? That's Scott. My first soulmate. Or, well, the first one I met."

Malia lets the interest in her mind burst through, "What are they like?"

"Well," the boy gets ready to ramble, hands already flying. "Scott's a good guy. He's kind and all that, but he's incredibly oblivious and naive. It took me years to get him to tell me his feelings." The brunette shrugged his shoulders, as if to say 'what can you do?'.

"Then there's Derek, he's grumpy as all hell but he's a softie at heart," his smirk softened into a smile. "He was kind of an asshole at first, but he's a complete teddy bear when you get to know him."

"There's Kira. She's shy and awkward but a sweetheart really, and she's a badass when you give her a sword. And last but not least, there's Erica. Kind of a bitch, but she's really broken when you get through that facade. And she looks great in a miniskirt."

Malia was pretty sure her eyes were bulging out of her head by the end of his rant, "You have four soulmates?"

"Yep," he said, giving her a look of happiness at her enthusiasm. "They're all mine. I'd never trade them for anything." His voice was tinted with an edge of possessiveness, that she imagined that maybe one day, she'd feel.

Malia asked, spurred on by the boy's clear adoration, "And are they also each other's...?"

"No," he admitted, eyes still sparkling. "It was kind of awkward at first, seeing as Scott was dating me, and then Derek revealed I was his soulmate, after learning my real name from Scott, so we got together, after a bit of arguing and flirting - with Scott's consent, of course - and then Erica got turned. She told me, after guessing that I was the only possible person it could have been and hitting me with a piece of my own car," Malia flinched at that, but the boy squeezed her shoulder. "Don't worry, Scott and Derek really tore her apart after she did that. So did my Dad, actually. He threatened her with a shotgun."

Malia let out a little smile at that, thinking of the kind man who had led her away with his jacket over her shoulders. Now that she thought about it, it seemed like he was exactly the kind of man who would do that.

"It didn't take me long to forgive her, seeing as I got that she wasn't exactly the most emotionally stable person, even if that didn't make her actions any better. Still, I forgave her. She is one of my soulmates after all, I don't think I could ever hold a grudge against her for more than a few weeks."

He rambled on, arms flailing. "So, we were dating, and then Kira moved to town. I don't think she thought about me being her soulmate until Scott got all angry about me doing something, " going off his tone when referring to 'something', Malia guessed it was something worth yelling about. This boy must really be a piece of work. "And he shouted at me and accidentally said my real name, and Kira overheard."

"She was worried at first, it wasn't hard to see. I guess she was scared about dating someone with three overprotective soulmates but I made them promise not to scare or hurt her. Took a while for Erica to get the memo though. But, as of now, we're all living a happy life."

"Wow," she murmured, breathless, eyes wide, as the boy threw his head back and laughed at her amazement.

"So," he said, once again sitting on the desk, legs swinging. "Going off the amount of questions, I'm guessing either you're just naturally curious, or you have more than one soulmate yourself." 

Malia felt a blush settle on her cheeks, the boy taking that as yes to the latter, "Well, I have no idea who the other or others might be, but I can tell you straight away, the girl you're gonna meet today is meant for you."

"You know her?" she felt the excitement make her heart pound in her chest, it showing in the squeak of words that left her lips.

"Know her? She's one of my best friends. Trust me, you'll love her. I can't tell you more than that, I don't really want to ruin your surprise."

The boy bounced up and faced her, arm outstretched. "Stiles."

"Eh?"

"Stiles. My name is Stiles. It's nice to meet you, Malia."

Looking down at his hand, remembering one of the ways people introduced themselves, she tentatively placed hers in his. "...It's nice to meet you too."

The boy, Stiles, grinned and Malia couldn't help but grin back, his smile infectious. The happy atmosphere faltered slightly, when a large amount of people could be heard entering the station and she froze.

"Shit," Stiles cursed, looking over Malia's shoulder to the group even he, without super hearing, could hear coming in. "Didn't I tell Scott to not bring too many people?"

"It's okay," she told him, but it really, really wasn't, and the brunette could tell. She looked overwhelmed, senses overloaded. 

"No, no, it's not," he replied back, voice sharp with anger, luckily not at her, and he glared out through the glass. "I'll be back in a second. You'll be alright alone?"

Malia couldn't help it, but the words flew through her mouth without her thinking, "I lived as a coyote for eight years with only my own company and the animals which didn't like me very much after I ate their families. I doubt a little time by myself will hurt."

She regretted them instantly, not wanting to snap at the boy who had been so kind to her, but her head cracked as it shot upwards, hearing a giggle coming from Stiles.

"Fiesty," he grinned, before heading out the door, and Malia could only blink as he didn't even bother to retort. 

-

A few moments passed in blissful silence until a shouting match started up outside.

Malia could hear what sounded very much like Stiles screaming almost, and it caused her to shiver with fright. The boy she had met who told her stories of his soulmates and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder had turned into a very, very angry flame. He literally personified fire in that moment, his words almost burning with rage.

She tries her best to block out the noise, covering her ears with her hands, face scrunched up in discomfort, so distracted that she barely notices the door open.

There's a girl, small and pretty, with big green eyes and strawberry blonde hair and she's looking at Malia with a judging gaze that makes her still, hands dropping as their eyes meet.

"I'm Lydia," the girl says and Malia's eyes flutter closed as she tries to calm her breathing, head lowering slightly.

"Malia," she replies and Lydia lets out a little noise, that causes Malia's head to tilt back up, and a blinding smile makes her lose her breath.

Her lips are overtaken, by both a smile and another pair, and she barely hears the words being spoken by a boy outside.

"How come Lydia got to go in?" the boy pouts, and Stiles giggles, smiling at the girls through the window as his boyfriend's jaw dropped.

"Why'd you think?" he teases, grin stretched wide before grabbing Scott's arm and dragging the gaping boy away from the office. "Let's leave those lovebirds alone."

When the Sheriff arrived hours later, he would find a pair of girls lying against his desk, snoring, arms wrapped around each other.

And he'd roll his eyes and smile.

-

Malia meets her other soulmate a few months later.

She's sitting in her room at the Sheriff's house, with Stiles next to her, helping her with her algebra equations. Ever since she'd turned back into a person, she'd preferred this house to the one her father owned and ended up spending a lot of her days here, even if the relationship between her and her lone parent was slowly being repaired.

Malia was dozing slightly, barely listening to her best friend, before the door bell rings and she startles up, Stiles glaring at her.

"You weren't listening," he says, voice accusing, and it's very clearly a statement. Malia presses her head to her chest, blushing and sheepish. She wants to listen to Stiles, wants to understand whatever the hell he talks about, but it's hard sometimes.

They both swing their legs off the bed, and Malia follows the other down the stairs, hoping it's the pizza they ordered. Stiles usually cooks for them, but he's tired and his brain's filled with too many thoughts and sometimes he really, really gets sick of cooking deer, so she settled for her second favourite food instead.

She opens the door with little flourish to find a panicked Erica on the other side. Her hair's a mess, and her eyes are blown wide with something Malia can't quite place a word on. Amazement? Happiness? Panic? Or maybe a mix of all three? She can't tell.

The blonde tugs her boyfriend in for a quick messy kiss that makes Malia wrinkle her nose, and then buries her face in his hair as she says two words that make both her and her best friend gasp, "Allison's awake."

-

The car ride to the hospital could be best described as awkward.

Stiles keeps sending her glances, as if to make sure she's okay, and she is fine. Completely and utterly fine.

.... Okay, she's lying about that. But she'll be alright. She's only going to meet her second soulmate, nothing to worry about.

The moment Erica had said those words, Stiles had walked over and had yanked up her shirt and checked her hip - his exact words while doing this were "as much as I hate to say this, I've seen you naked enough times to know what those words are, Malia" - and yes, the word's were white. Allison Argent was her soulmate.

It had scared her, of course. She had already known of Lydia's relationship with her, and the idea of her being Malia's other soulmate made sense - people who were soulmates and both had another tended to have the same name scrawled somewhere on their body, usually in the same place, and since both of their other soulmate's names were Allison, it was a logical thought - but she was still worried about what Allison would think.

Waking up after months in a coma to see your soulmate of a stranger that you'd never met before that day walk in would be terrifying for anyone, and Malia knew personally she would never be able to deal with that.

Resting her head against the window and feeling the jeep shudder, she thought of the girl she now knew for definite was her soulmate. She'd seen the pictures, a pretty brunette with teasing brown eyes and wide lips pulled into a beautiful smile, and she'd heard the stories, of a huntress armed with a bow and arrow. Allison sounded amazing.

She sounded nothing like Malia.

And that broke her heart.

-

Malia held her breath as the door to Allison's room broke its way into her vision.

Stiles kept a steady hand on her back, and Erica was whispering reassurances into her ear, and the pack was sending her their attempts at comforting looks, but that didn't stop the bile rising in her throat.

She turns the corner and her friends disappear behind the door, as she steps into the room with shaky legs and sees Lydia send her a reassuring glance as she comes face to face with Allison.

Malia stares, unblinking, and the girl in front of her smiles.

The cold gripping her heart soothes.

And she smiles back.


End file.
